The Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) is a virtual
switch for ESX and ESXi. This switch can be added to ESX and ESXi
where it replaces the VMware virtual switch and runs as part of the
ESX and ESXi kernel.

A flaw in the handling of dropped packets by Cisco Nexus 1000V VEM
can cause ESX and ESXi to crash.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)
has assigned the name CVE-2011-0355 to the issue.

VMware customers are only affected by this vulnerability if they
have chosen to deploy the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch as a
replacement for the VMware vNetwork Standard Switch or the VMware
vNetwork Distributed Switch.

VMware has confirmed that the VMware vNetwork Standard Switch and
the VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch are not affected by the
vulnerability.

The issue is documented by Cisco in Cisco bug ID CSCtj17451 (see
section 5 for a link).